The Best of Cornell at the Student Arts Showcase
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Last Friday, the Johnson Museum was the backdrop for the annual Student Arts Showcase, which highlighted the incredible range of talents found among our fellow Cornell students. Organized by the Museum Club, the showcase presented an eclectic mix of fine and performing arts, featuring a mishmash of all types of song, dance and comedy. The result was a motley combination of performances which was very overall highly entertaining.
One of the highlights of the evening was a special performance of a chamber operetta, Abyssinia, written by Stuart Paul Duncan. Incorporating orchestral accompaniment and chorus, the performance became a type of light opera in which the tale of Princess Abyssina slowly unfolded. Tracing the story of a post-apocalyptic future in which an aging African king hopes for an heir and an exiled princess befriends a cyborg orangutan, Abyssina’s notably bizarre plotline kept things lighthearted and amusing. At times both awkward and lyrical, the music emphasized the modernist feel of the futuristic plot. The impressive musical talent of the group shone throughout the performance and emphasized the great skill of the musician, singers and composer.
Among the other talents showcased during the evening, an entirely different type of performance by Anything Goes, Cornell’s musical theatre troupe. They presented a a lively and energetic combination of song and dance, performing such songs as “Seasons of Love” from Rent. The group’s particularly rousing rendition of “Footloose” was spectacularly done.
Other vocal talent of the night included the Callbaxx, an all-female a cappella group. Particularly notable was the group’s wonderfully sweet version of “Life Could Be a Dream,” which captured the carefree, blissful mood of the song. Similarly impressive was the group’s surprising talent for imitating instrumentals.
Armed only with her guitar and her voice, Candance Berne performed a number of her own self-penned songs for the crowd. Evoking Colbie Caillat or a pre-pop star Jewel, Candance’s soulful music was a soothing contrast to the more high energy song and dance numbers.
Mixing it up, the Students Arts Showcase became another episode of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew with a number of Cornell student dance groups whose specialties ran the gamut from hip hop to tap. First on deck, the Dazzlers kicked and dipped their way through a mix of what seemed to be Britney Spears and “Low” by Flo Rida. Incorporating both jazz and hip hop, the group’s choreography was well-executed and precise.
Proving that tap can be cool, the On Tap Dance Troupe, the university’s only all tap dance group, was fantastic. Almost perfectly in rhythmic unison, the dancers showed their creativity by integrating two seemingly incongruous genres of dance, hip hop and tap, for a highly entertaining and unique crowd pleaser.
Unlike the other groups, aRise, a Christian dance group, used their dance as a means to convey a particular Christian message of hope. Merging ballet and hip hop to a soundtrack of hip hop, rock and Christian music, aRise’s “Unshackled” was a physical representation of the meaning of liberation.
Celebrating the diversity of the many dance groups on campus, the Student Arts Showcase moved away from hip hop to present Illuminations, a Cornell Chinese dance group. Performing two dances entitled “Tie Shan” and “Oasis,” Illuminations demonstrated the power and subtlety of traditional Asian dance. At first revealing their dexterity and grace with large, silver fans, the group’s second performance was hypnotic in its clock-like precision.
Comedy was also served up during the Students Arts Showcase. As a result of the energetic antics of the Skits-O-Phrenics, laughter was in no short supply that evening. Cornell’s sketch comedy troupe used both slapstick humor and pop culture references to keep the audiences chuckling in their seats. However, the crowd was not always so easy to please. Quite tragically, the last performance of the night, a stand-up comedy routine, fell flat with sedate and contrived jokes.
All in all, the Student Arts Showcase was a wonderful opportunity to explore the fine art on display and to see firsthand the immense talent of our university’s musicians, artists, dancers and comedians. Before leaving Cornell, be sure to take the time to seek out all that the Johnson Museum of Art has to offer. You may just be surprised.